Albus and the Great Truth
by nij2401
Summary: You may not think this is a T rating but oh well... The next generation of Weasleys/Potters need to know the truth, but how will they find it out?
1. The Future

The Future

Harry and Ginny had never told their children about what really happened in the Wizarding War. They had told them about great lives, they had told them about Teddy's father and mother, they had told them about why Uncle George always looked sad, but they had never told them the truth. They had never told them about the name that Uncle Ron was still scared to utter. None of the Weasley clan had. The reason was simply that they didn't want to frighten them out of their wits at a young age. Their childhood didn't need to be destroyed as the adults' had.

The children just accepted it that way, until Teddy turned 17. As soon as they could after his seventeenth birthday, the Weasley clan (and his grandmother Andromeda) had took him into a private room, had a "discussion" with him and let him go. He had emerged looking rather preoccupied and the other children didn't know why, not even Victoire (who by this time was starting to eye Teddy differently). When asked, Teddy would either ignore them or change the subject. Even James Potter, the family troublemaker along with Hugo Weasley, knew better than to badger him for too long.

Even so, they were curious. Curious about what had happened long before they were born. Curious about a nightmare wizard who had come close to ruling the world. Curious, and when children are curious, no-one can stop them.


	2. Victoire

Victoire

Victoire's seventeenth birthday was on the 2nd May. Bill, Fleur and the rest prepared for her discussion. It was hard, after all. They had to explain everything, and only Harry knew the full details about absolutely everything. It was also hard because they would have to explain why they had to keep it a secret from her, and why some of the wizarding world was still torn apart.

The time they explained the full details to her was the summer holiday before Albus and Rose started at Hogwarts. After she came out, she linked arms with Teddy and said to the others that they were going for a walk in the park near to Shell Cottage, and away they Apparated.

Next would probably be Dominique and then Molly Jr. They started whispering to each other whenever they could, in Hogwarts and out. Everyone was desperately waiting for the time they turned seventeen, and James and Hugo had asked their parents to tell them the truth already. But both Harry and Ron had said the same thing: "You're too young now. Wait for a while and then you'll know."

They had soon forgotten the incident and started playing pranks on everyone again, but Al felt it wasn't fair. After all, it was about _their_ past, their family and friends. It was all part of who they were, so didn't they deserve to know?

A month or so later, Al was on the Hogwarts Express with Rose, exchanging Chocolate Frog cards and meeting other people they knew, having calmed the indignation that he had originally felt. But he still felt annoyed, and resolved to find out as soon as he could…

A/N: I will not be able to update this for some time. Sorry. Have a great Easter!


	3. Hogwarts

Hogwarts

As soon as the first day was over, Al was glad he was a wizard. He had shared his experience with his cousin, his brother (even though he was teased about getting into Slytherin) and his friend Nelson Longbottom, who was also in his year. Rose was sorted into Ravenclaw and Al was sorted into Gryffindor. James gave him a big smile as he nervously approached the table. Nelson was sorted into Hufflepuff, which was hardly surprising. His older sister Helen was in Gryffindor, and felt rather sorry that her brother was in a different house.

"On the bright side, at least you won't have to be annoyed by him asking you homework instructions all the time, unlike me," James said and gave a sly grin towards Al. Al glared back, but didn't say anything. He couldn't. He knew James had a MAJOR crush on Helen and would kill him if he told anyone.

Supper began and Al was glad. He was ravenous, and wolfed down whatever he could. James looked confused at seeing his normally polite brother behaving like a barbarian. Rose, sitting at the Ravenclaw table, glanced at him and rolled her eyes. _Boys,_ she thought, and went back to calmly eating.

After everyone had eaten to their heart's content, McGonagall tapped her goblet for silence.

"Welcome, boys and girls to another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! I hope everyone has an excellent time, and performs to the best of their ability in the forthcoming year. May I remind you that, as always, the Forbidden Forest is FORBIDDEN, and therefore NOT to be entered. Mr Filch has extended the list of banned items and there is a copy of it on the noticeboard in every common-room."

"I wish the old geezer was the one that was banned, him and that damned feline of his," James muttered under his breath. Somehow, it was always James that got on Filch's bad side.

"Off to bed now, all of you! You need to attend lessons tomorrow!" McGonagall continued.

"Goodnight and good luck," James whispered to Al, before running to find the rest of the second-year Gryffindors.

Al followed the first-year Gryffindor boys to their dormitory, feeling, though tired, elated.


	4. The First Week

The First Week

Al was gradually becoming weighed down by the amount of work that he was getting. His favourite subject by far was Defence Against the Dark Arts which was taught by Professor Davies (no, not a relative of Roger Davies) who, though slightly strict, was a good teacher. Potions was better than he expected it to be, since Slughorn was still teacher and knew Al as Harry's son. The other subjects were alright, but not too great. He was making friends fast among his year, and all in all, Al could definitely say he was enjoying himself.

Yet he felt there was something missing. Something that he didn't quite know how to describe. His father was always telling him about his rule breaking and James had found a map, called the Marauder's Map (as explained by Uncle George, who then immediately went away from the rest of the family). Perhaps it was that? Maybe, he just needed… a jolt from boredom? Al wasn't entirely sure.

He fell asleep quickly on the night he was thinking about that, and he had a very interesting dream. A man. That was all. Or was it a man? He was tall and pale, wearing black robes, eyes rather like a snake, and he looked menacing. He then said two words which sent a chill down his spine.

"_Avada Kedavra!_"

That's when he was woken up. By James.

"What the 'eck are you doin' here?" he said, sleepily, "Get out! Get lost!"

"Shut up, it's 6 in the morning and I have to show you something." James led his younger brother down to the common-room. Al stood waiting as he pulled out a cloak.

"This is what you wanted to show me? An old cloak?"


	5. The Cloak and the Map

The Cloak and the Map

Al never got a chance to test it until three weeks later. By that time, he was beginning to face a lot. Scorpius Malfoy was being a real idiot by criticising everyone and everything that wasn't in Slytherin. He started whispering with other people (rather loudly, defeating the purpose) about someone called the Dark Lord and Dementors. He also mentioned Death Eater. Al found it pretty odd. How come Malfoy had heard of those things when he hadn't?

He also had the recurring nightmare about the not-entirely-a-man shouting those chilling words with a flash of green light coming from the wand. That was always where he woke up. He was starting to wonder whether the two were connected.

Once he found it, he got this incredible urge to test it. But for that, he'd need to borrow the Marauder's Map from James.

The next night, once he'd made sure that no-one would obstruct him, he draped himself with the Cloak, lit his wand and opened the map. He found an exit out of the castle and began walking. Where? He himself didn't know. He began steadily walking past the lake, past Hagrid's cabin and suddenly found himself near a large cluster of trees. Dare he? Dare he enter the one and only Forbidden Forest?

He took a deep breath and summoned all his courage. He entered the first part of the trees. Fear overtook his soul through the first part of the forest, but as nothing happened for a while, he felt more natural. He started to wonder at his freedom. He could do anything! Anything!

Unfortunately, he wasn't looking too hard and tripped over a tree stump. He gasped, then stood up and quickly covered himself with the Cloak. Only then did he realise that in his hand, he held a stone. A magic stone; it had to be, no other stone from the forest could gleam like this. He turned it over to see if any runes or marks were on it. He managed to turn it three times before he found it. A triangle with a circle in it and line going through it. He'd ask Rose what it meant. After all, she knew everything.

Albus looked up. He realised that he was not alone…


	6. The People

The People

Eight other people were now standing in front of him. Five of them were in a huddled group, while the rest of them stayed separate. In the huddled group, one man looked like Al's father (except the eyes) and a woman looked exactly like his sister, but with different facial features. He realised that these were his grandparents. One man had matted black hair with torn robes; the third man had light brown hair, patches on his robes and was linking arms with a woman whose hair was now changing from purple to a light pink. Al had seen Teddy change his hair colour as well.

Three men were standing separately from the rest. One was the same age as most of the group of five, but at a distance from them. He had greasy, long black hair, a hooked nose and black eyes. The second man had extremely long white hair and a beard, and he wore half-moon glasses on his crooked nose. The third man looked exactly like Uncle George.

"Tell them what your name is," the woman with red hair said, gesturing towards the group of three, "we know, but they don't." She smiled a beautiful smile.

Al wondered. Should he tell this group of strangers who he was? But his grandparents were there and…

"My-my name," he stuttered, "i-is Albus S-Severus P-P-Potter."

The man with the white hair's eyes started swimming with tears. The man with greasy black hair looked startled. Al assumed that these were the two people he was named after.

The man who looked like Al's father said, "But why? Why would he name his child- my grandson- after Snivellus Snape?"

"It was the memories! Before I died I gave him- Harry- some memories." Snivellus- or probably Severus- Snape seemed to struggle saying the word Harry.

"Which were?" said the man with the scars.

"I WASN'T A TRUE DEATH EATER! Alright, maybe I was, BUT I WAS A DOUBLE AGENT! MY ONLY TRUE LOYALTY WAS- TO- TO DUMBLEDORE! TO THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX! In hope that they would protect the woman I loved, and her son after her demise."

"So… you loved Lily? All this time?" asked the man with the matted black hair.

"YES, ALRIGHT? I LOVED HER! I LOVED HER AND I ALWAYS WILL AND I WAS DEVASTATED WHEN SHE DIED!"

"You… you swine, you piece of filth!" Al's grandfather started to go to Severus but-

"James, stop!" Al's grandmother yelled, "It's not a crime to have feelings for someone! You know that better than anyone!"

"Answer me this, Lily," asked James, "if he wasn't into the Dark Arts, would you have loved him?"

Lily paused, and finally said, "Well, maybe a little, but not as much as I grew to love you! And not as much as he loved me." She turned to Severus and said gently, "Sev, I'm sorry. You'd always be the best friend I'd ever had, but never…"

Severus mumbled, "It's alright. Nothing I can do." Severus and James looked at each other with a little more than just civility.

"I'm sorry to be tactless, but what's going on? Who are you? Why are you here?" Al said.

"We're here because we're the dearest people to you who are dead," said the woman with the pink hair.

"But why?" Al asked.

"So your father hasn't told you?" asked Albus, "Well let's introduce ourselves. I'm Albus Dumbledore."

One by one, they introduced themselves. Al recognised Teddy's parents and Uncle George's twin brother. And then they told him everything. It was difficult. Dumbledore did most of the telling, but everyone jumped in at points.

They hadn't even got to Harry's fourth year when Al realised it was getting late. A little sadly, he said, "I've got to go. I'll see you, of course! Whenever I can. So you can tell me the rest of the story."

Al slowly turned away, but asked, "By the way, what are you? You definitely aren't ghosts, because you aren't transparent-" Severus sighed at this, "but you aren't Inferi, because you aren't solid."

"That," Fred said, "is entirely up to you." Everyone smiled, before disappearing.


	7. Until Christmas

Until Christmas

Al didn't get much time to go to the Forest. He was so busy with schoolwork that he often fell asleep as soon as he went to bed. But sometimes during the weekend he would go to the Forest and twirl the stone (which he kept with him whenever he could for safekeeping) and "they" would appear and tell him the rest. Surprisingly enough, Al managed to remember everything and was certain he could tell it to everyone else when the time came.

Al was going to go home for Christmas. It was a Weasley tradition that the entire family go to Harry's house for a massive Christmas dinner cooked by Mrs Weasley. Two weeks before the holiday, Al realised that it would probably be the last time that he would be able to see them, so he went back to the Forest.

By that time, the story had been told, and Al was simply talking to them about other things. Sometimes Uncle Fred would give Al new ideas about pranks for James. Sometimes, there were Dark wizard attacks in other places, and while they reminisced about their time, Al would tell them about his. He realised that he loved talking to his father's friends and family just as much as he loved talking to his own. He decided to keep the Stone with him for Christmas, just to remind him that he would be back to Hogwarts soon.


	8. Christmas at Home

Christmas at Home

Until Christmas day, Al moped around a little. Everyone else just assumed he was missing Hogwarts. Little did they know he was missing something far more than that.

Of course, Al had fun. Fun with his parents, uncles, aunts and grandparents; fun catching up with the latest news. But it just wasn't quite the same as having a guider that only you can have. He was feeling restless.

One day, Al had had enough. He went out on the balcony to get some air. He took the Stone out form his pocket. He wondered, why should he stay here? Why should he need all this guidance? Why can't he be with the people he wanted?

He put the Stone back in his pocket and took a deep breath. He braced himself. He hitched one leg over the edge of the balcony and lifted his other leg-

"Albus Severus Potter, what on EARTH do you think you're doing?!"


	9. Someone Finds Out

Someone Finds Out

Al quickly brought his leg back and turned around.

"What?" he asked, trying to look and sound as innocent as possible.

"What were you doing?" asked his father in return. His tone was rarely as strict as this, and Al knew he had to be careful.

"Nothing, Dad," Al said meekly.

Harry narrowed his eyes and stared him down. "Turn out your pockets," he ordered.

"Why?" Al asked. He knew he was for it.

"Just do as I say!" Harry replied. He was worried about what his son had with him.

Al turned out his pockets and gave Harry the Stone. He immediately recognised it.

"Where did you find this?" Harry asked authoritatively.

"OK, I went to the Forbidden Forest with the Cloak and the Map and I tripped and I found this and I turned it and Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Fred and Dumbledore and Sirius and Remus and Dora and Severus came and they told me everything and why didn't you tell me?"

Harry gasped. He hadn't known that Al would find out on his own.

"I didn't want to frighten you but that's not the point! The point is what you were doing! You should never get too attached to these souls! I mean, look at what you were about to do! You did it because you wanted to be with them, didn't you?"

Al nodded and hung his head.

"So I'm going to take it. Alright? Go and eat."

Al turned to go, but then asked, "Dad?"

"Yes?" Harry said.

"Make sure you put it where James won't find it."

"I will."

Harry sighed as he watched his retreating back. Apart from 'The Warlock's Hairy Heart', 'The Tale of the Three Brothers' was the only Tale of Beedle the Bard that the Weasleys hadn't told their children. And now Al knew everything…

Harry pondered about his youngest son for a while, then went back inside to eat some lunch.


End file.
